Farewell Circa

Here’s the short Circa version: We tried to do something very different, we took huge risks, we built a product that spawned a whole new category, and we enjoyed every moment of it, at least until the money ran out and that sucked.

Care to know more? By all means, read on:

We got some stuff wrong, but there’s a hell of a lot we got right. There will be a time and place for me to expand on that, today is not that day. I’m delighted to see we’ve inspired many other apps to do part of what we did or attempt to. It’s great that we’ll see various elements of Circa live on through them.

I want to thank this team:

Arsenio, I am so lucky to have worked with you and have someone so willing to work hand and glove with editorial. That’s a rare thing in our business. You’re a rockstar, I hope we cross paths again. I also loved the chance to work with your amazing team: Tim, Travis, Chris, Michelle, Ashley, AJ, Brian, Darren, Adam, and Frank.

John Maloney, you know how much you did for this team. You are selfless. Without question, you have been a rock and fought the good fight to try to get us over the finish line. I’ll never forget that. I am your brother for life.

Matt, you gave me an amazing opportunity and you’re an incredible product designer. The industry is still trying to catch up with you. I know you’ll continue to do amazing things.

David, our founding editor, who mentored me and taught me the very unique way we do things here at Circa. Without you, I would be nothing. You’re killing it at Al-Jazeera. I am indebted to you for teaching me and giving me the skills to have continued what you created here.

Adrian, Daniel, Greg, Evan, Andrew, Ted, Chad, Lenika, Nicholas, Peter, Abraham, Amelie, Alli, Nallur, Kevin, and Lisa. Who fought their asses off and have unique skills that few others in our industry can boast of. They’re now free to take those skills out to the world and give your newsroom superpowers. Startups are hard, they’re not the safe passage for anyone. News is tough enough to then have the unpredictability of startup life tossed in for good measure. I respect and admire these folks for putting their heart and soul into this.

Christine, our incredible designer. Your work speaks for itself. Someone will be very lucky to have you bringing your magic to them soon.

Jessie, our operations rock. Without you, the ship doesn’t sail. Thanks for keeping us on track and making sure the trains run on time.

Finally, I want to thank the majority of our investors, who believed in us enough to write a check. There are some investors making it difficult to get our team paid for services rendered. Be assured I won’t stand by idle if they’re not made whole.

I can vouch for all the people above, but I worked as Editor In Chief and can uniquely speak for the skills of the team I led below. I’m providing short bios but can get into more detail about what I think their strongest skills are. Please do get in touch soon if you want them, there’s actually a lot of demand and I’m happy to see that. I also linked their emails to their names here if you want to reach them directly.

HIRED! Daniel Bentley – Senior editor at Circa (Hired by Fortune)

HIRED!Adrian Arizmendi – Tends to focus on political matters. Has a great grasp on policy and the intricacies of legislature. Would be a great fit on a team covering congress and/or the 2016 race. Based in San Francisco. (Hired by Al-Jazeera)HIRED!Evan Buxbaum – Deputy editor, helped lead our team during PT hours and also ran weekends. Good manager, can lead a team of multiple people and has an excellent eye for detail. Tireless. Based in Seattle. (Hired by New York Post)Andrew Bossone – Led our Middle East coverage and helped manage our team during the overnight hours. Excellent grasp of foreign policy, especially in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. Based in Jordan. (Doing contract work but available for a full-time gig)

HIRED!Ted Trautman – Primary copy editor. Great eye for detail. Jack of all trades when it comes to subject matters. Great disposition, easy to work with. Based in San Francisco (Currently working on a book!)

HIRED!Chad Catacchio – Led our Asia coverage, especially Japan. Especially strong when it comes to science and sports. Based in Beijing now but soon returning to Massachusetts. (Hired by Enervee)

HIRED! Nicholas Deleon – Lead Tech Editor. Wide grasp of all matters related to technology, both on the business and product side. He managed to cover nearly all the important stories for us in this space by himself. Great disposition, very easy to work with. Based in New York. (Hired by VICE Motherboard)

Peter Wade – Jack of all trades subject matter wise. Helped relaunch our Tumblr and grew our audience there significantly in a short period of time. Staff writer, pitched in as the defacto Social Media Editor for Circa. Comfortable covering a variety of topics. He has written for and managed social media at numerous digital news publications including Fast Company, SportsNet New York and The Daily. He also maintains his own news, media and pop culture Tumblr at BrooklynMutt.com. Based in Washington D.C.Abraham Hyatt – Has a great grasp on criminal justice matters. Also has a background covering tech and business. Based in San Francisco.HIRED!Amelie Meyer- Robinson – Foreign policy focus, good grasp on Europe in particular. Based in San Francisco. (Hired by Twitter)HIRED! Alli Maloney – Covers a wide variety of topics, high output, performs well under pressure. Well versed in women’s issues. Based in Ohio. (Hired by New York Times, Women in the World)Kevin Ponniah andLisa Yallamas – Based in London and Australia respectively. Staff writers, good grasp on Asia + Southeast Asia matters.

40 thoughts on “Farewell Circa”

I am starting a newsagency in the Bahamas. I have been looking at your platform for the past few weeks and thought it was absolutely perfect. Yes it does need a way to monetize the content. Would you have any interesting in having a further conversation about the potential licensing of the product?

A wonderful tribute. Would love to hear from any of you with on-air experience and/or a likelihood to be in Chicago. Please check out the possibility of work with Rivet, where we’re following a parallel path reimagining radio news. http://rivetnewsradio.com/careers

I’m a college student and Circa has been keeping me informed about world and technology news for the past two years. It allowed me to speak confidently about any occurring issue with my friends, boss, and co-workers at my internships, and stay in touch with what’s happening back home (Middle East). A terrific idea I am very sad to hear go. Thank you Circa!

You guys did something incredibly difficult and with great ambition and hard work made a wonderful product I loved (can’t speak for all your users but can speak for one at least). I was skeptical at first but grew to love reading my daily brief every night. Hats off to all of you.

Circa provided quality unbiased news that is rare to find. Additionally it was convenient to read and stay informed even as news developed. I’m uncertain where to go to replace it. I wish a subscription service like patreon.com was attempted. I consume a few technical news sources that are funded through patreon.

I would like to give you a Big Thank you! Each morning at breakfast I read Circa. For the first time in my life I finally found a news source that gave me facts and not bias. There is something really holy about the work you have done and I like you hope to find it somewhere else now. Thank you for your mission.

I pay $7 a month for Hulu+ to watch 3 shows that rarely come out with new material. I would gladly have put those $7 into Circa. My girlfriend and I are quite sad that Circa will be gone, it was exactly what we were looking for in a mobile news app.

Circa was an app that I had grown to trust more than any other news app. I’d access it every day for my unbiased, simple and aesthetic news coverage. I’m quite shocked that it’s ending, I hoped you would have at least explored some kind of monthly fee. I’d be down.
Thanks for the hard work ’til now!

I’m so sad to hear that it didn’t work
out. Circa had become the first place I turn to when looking for news. Thank you for all of your hard work and for making a very enjoyable and easy to access news source! I hope your next endeavor is a huge success!!! 🙂

I waited hopefully for years for a news service like yours to materialize, never considering that it might actually happen. You provided what I consider to be the actualization of what I believe to be a fundamental human right in the internet age – access to strictly factual accounts if relevant world events without bias or commentary. Thank you journalists, editors and everyone in between. I appreciate your judgment in the presentation of every story I’ve read. Especially courageous and inspiring is your decision to forgo the implementation of advertising and subscription fees for funding. You have chosen to uphold the strictest journalistic and moral standards to protect unbiased reporting, which I still hope can live on through you or others following your example at some point in the future.

You guys were easily the best news app I’ve ever used. Very clean layout, great writing, and an easy app to use. By far my favorite, and honestly the only, source I went to for news. I am very disappointed that it didn’t work out for you all and wish you the best of luck. Hopefully some of you will go on to create an equally stellar news source. Thank you.

I am a startup founder myself and can fully identify with the sentiments expressed. What is the lesson to be learned? No matter how noble an idea, if “the market” with all its frivolity does no “take” to something – it “fails”. But I do not see this as “failure”. If brave people do not push the envelope great things will never happen. The efforts of the Circa people will be realised in another form someday – maybe in another form. You have started something, and touched the lives of many people. This can never be thought of as failure. Keep fighting for your authentic selves – there is no more noble cause.

You guys became part of my morning ritual along with coffee. A more trusted independent news source is rare these days. Hats off to you guys. Sorry it didn’t last but the effort you put in will not be forgotten. Wherever the road takes you all from here I wish you all the best of luck.

Circa was the only mobile news app worth using and I would have paid a subscription fee to continue using it. It’s content was credible, intelligently and efficiently condensed, and beautifully laid out. I told everyone to use it. I’m sad that it’s gone now, because I’m back to where I started: sorting through the morass of “entertainment news.” The Circa team did news the way it should be done. What you accomplished will not be forgotten.

I switched to an IPhone during the first year so that I could access CIRCA without waiting for Android access, after seeing the app on someone else’s phone. CIRCA has offered such efficiency in both the overall format and individual articles that getting the news became fun. Has been my primary news source for daily breaking news and updates since you started. And did I mention that you made this 64-year old woman feel like part of the current phone app savvy generation? I was afraid that it was just to good to be true that all this was available to me for free. Thanks for making your vision a reality, and thanks to all who worked to make this a high quality product–you should be proud.

I love to read the news in this app. The design is wonderful the news content is great and well presented. So sad to see Circa go. You should charge a suscription , is more than well deserved and I will be a suscriber. thank you for the app and good work.

Will miss this app, it was always my afternoon break to catch up on news and reminded it was my halfway point of my day. I loved the format steaight to the point news without all the sensationalism. Sad to see you go.

You were and always be the best in your field. I can see that many people are willing to pay for your unmatchable service and so am I. Beautiful design, comprehensive and to-the-point content neatly sorted by categories, and an ability to follow stories: this is that distinguishes you from copycats.
Thank you for your work and service.

I really loved this app. The design and UX was beautiful and it was usually a seamless experience. More importantly it was my go to news source and I really appreciated the editorial aggregation approach. It felt as if I was actually getting the true facts of the story and not just a news outlets own biased point of view.

After weeks of still getting the push notifications from the app, I had to uninstall. It made me also realize that if given the opportunity to pay a monthly fee, I would have.

I wish you guys all the best in your future endeavors but please know that I personally know dozens of other people who were upset at the closing down of circa. Hopefully you can somehow keep the dream alive.